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As the collapse of the Western Roman Empire accelerated during the 4th and 5th centuries, arriving "barbarian" groups began to establish new communities in the border provinces of the declining (and eventually former) empire. This was a time of significant cultural and political change throughout not only these border regions but Europe as a whole. 1,2 To better understand post-Roman community formation in one of these key frontier zones after the collapse of the Hunnic movement, we generated new paleogenomic data for a set of 38 burials from a time series of three 5th century cemeteries 3,4,5 at Lake Balaton, Hungary. We utilized a comprehensive sampling approach to characterize these cemeteries along with data from 38 additional burials from a previously published mid-6th century site 6 and analyzed them alongside data from over 550 penecontemporaneous individuals. 7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19 The range of genetic diversity in all four of these local burial communities is extensive and wider ranging than penecontemporaneous Europeans sequenced to date. Despite many commonalities in burial customs and demography, we find that there were substantial differences in genetic ancestry between the sites. We detect evidence of northern European gene flow into the Lake Balaton region. Additionally, we observe a statistically significant association between dress artifacts and genetic ancestry among 5th century genetically female burials. Our analysis shows that the formation of early Medieval communities was a multifarious process even at a local level, consisting of genetically heterogeneous groups. • Novel genomic data from 53 individuals from 5th–8th century Europe were generated • The sites exhibit significant genetic diversity comparable to large swaths of Europe • Associations between genomic ancestry and burial customs vary in the analyzed sites • Spatial modeling analyses indicate gene flow from northern Europe into Pannonia Vyas, Koncz, et al. conduct a multidisciplinary analysis of 5th–6th century communities from the territory of former Roman Pannonia. Despite archaeological similarities, they find significant differences in genomic ancestry between the sites as well as evidence of gene flow from Northern Europe into the region starting in the late 5th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Huns, Avars, and conquering Hungarians were migration-period nomadic tribal confederations that arrived in three successive waves in the Carpathian Basin between the 5th and 9th centuries. Based on the historical data, each of these groups are thought to have arrived from Asia, although their exact origin and relation to other ancient and modern populations have been debated. Recently, hundreds of ancient genomes were analyzed from Central Asia, Mongolia, and China, from which we aimed to identify putative source populations for the above-mentioned groups. In this study, we have sequenced 9 Hun, 143 Avar, and 113 Hungarian conquest period samples and identified three core populations, representing immigrants from each period with no recent European ancestry. Our results reveal that this "immigrant core" of both Huns and Avars likely originated in present day Mongolia, and their origin can be traced back to Xiongnus (Asian Huns), as suggested by several historians. On the other hand, the "immigrant core" of the conquering Hungarians derived from an earlier admixture of Mansis, early Sarmatians, and descendants of late Xiongnus. We have also shown that a common "proto-Ugric" gene pool appeared in the Bronze Age from the admixture of Mezhovskaya and Nganasan people, supporting genetic and linguistic data. In addition, we detected shared Hun-related ancestry in numerous Avar and Hungarian conquest period genetic outliers, indicating a genetic link between these successive nomadic groups. Aside from the immigrant core groups, we identified that the majority of the individuals from each period were local residents harboring "native European" ancestry. • 265 new ancient genomes help to unravel the origin of migration-period populations • Genetic continuity is detected between Xiongnus and European Huns • European Avars most likely originated from Mongolia and were related to Huns • Conquering Hungarians had Ugric ancestry and later admixed with Sarmatians and Huns Maróti et al. show that immigrants were in minority compared with the locals of the Carpathian Basin in each period. Several Hun period immigrants had Asian Hun (Xiongnu) ancestry. The Avar immigrant elite had ancient Mongolian origin. Conquering Hungarians and Mansis had common ancestors, but proto-Hungarians further admixed with Sarmatians and Huns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Aba family played a pivotal role in Medieval Hungary, dominating vast territories and producing influential figures. We conducted an archaeogenetic study on remains from the necropolis in Abasár, the political center of the Aba clan, to identify family members and explore their genetic origins. Using Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) data from 19 individuals and radiocarbon dating, we identified 6 Aba family members with close kinship ties. Four males carried identical N1a1a1a1a4∼ haplogroups, and our phylogenetic analysis traced this royal paternal lineage back to Mongolia, indicating migration to the Carpathian Basin with the conquering Hungarians. Genome analysis, including ADMIXTURE, principal-component analysis (PCA), and qpAdm, revealed East Eurasian genetic patterns, aligning with our phylogenetic findings. Identity by descent (IBD) analysis confirmed family kinship and revealed connections to prominent Hungarian noble families like the Árpáds, Báthorys, and Corvinus, as well as to the first-generation immigrant elite of the Hungarian conquest., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interests., (© 2024 The Author(s).)